This invention pertains to a process for selecting a recording on a digital audiovisual reproduction system with a touch screen, and the system for implementing the process.
Such audiovisual reproduction systems are generally found in cafes or pubs and are composed of a sound reproduction machine, generally referred to as a jukebox, connected to a monitor that displays video images or video clips. To do this, the jukebox is equipped with a video compact-disk reader and a library of video compact disks and includes pre-selection buttons that show the titles of the works of music that are to be selected. Payment of an adequate fee, followed by one or more pre-selections, activates the system, whereby the disk on which the selected work is found is automatically loaded into the reader, and the desired audiovisual reproduction can began.
Although these systems allow reliable and good-quality reproduction, they still have some serious drawbacks. A first drawback relates to the space that is required for storing the library. The library of disks requires that the system be of significant size. Likewise, these systems, which employ mainly mechanical hardware, use sophisticated techniques that lead to frequent and costly malfunctions. Moreover, it is quite uncommon for all of the works on a single disk to be listened to regularly, and some are almost never listened to, but the entire disk must be included in the library. Another drawback is due to the fact that the companies that manage and distribute these systems circulate a limited number of identical disks and require a certain amount of rotation among their clients. Consequently, the clients are sometimes made to wait when a disk is not available.
It is known from patent PCT/JWO 93 184 65 that there are computerized jukeboxes that make it possible to receive, through a telecommunications network and a modem that connects the jukebox to the network, digitized information that comprises songs or works of music, which are remotely loaded into a bulk memory of the jukebox. The communication system can also remotely load files that are representative of digitized graphical data, whereby the songs and graphical files are compressed before they are sent onto the network. The jukebox processor then makes use of these files by decompressing them and sending the graphical data to the video circuit and the song data to the audio circuit.
The processor, however, also manages the user interfaces, and the management of these different elements is accomplished sequentially by displaying the graphic images that are representative of the song and then responding to the user""s activation of the keys, then by re-loading if the user has paid the desired amount and, finally, when the desired amount has been paid, by placing the selection in a queue to be played later. Moreover, this system can operate only by first displaying the graphic images and then initiating the playback of the song because, according to the logic diagrams, the processor cannot execute two tasks at the same time.
The activation of the keys by a user requires a certain amount of training, is a source of errors, and also extends song selection time.
The object of this invention is a recording selection process that is convenient and easy to use, even for a beginner.
This object is achieved by providing a process for selecting a recording on an audiovisual reproduction system using friendly on-screen windows. Moreover, with the friendly windows, data required for the display can be selected from information that is stored in a bulk memory representing an image of the recording cover. Corresponding music recordings are stored in the bulk memory of the reproduction system, and each zone of a window is associated with at least one address for accessing the information of the databases via a touch-screen interface.
According to another feature, a light touch on one of the windows causes the corresponding cover to be displayed with the various titles that can be selected from this cover. The selection of a title can then be made by lightly touching one of the titles on the list, and playback is accomplished by lightly touching an alphanumeric tile.
According to another feature, an area that includes several graphic display tiles in which the images of available covers by the same artist are displayed.
According to another feature, one strip or zone of the screen includes arrows at each end effecting scrolling in one direction or the other so as to display the other images of covers that cannot be displayed in the windows or the display tiles.
According to another feature, the window zone, which includes the several windows, displays a cover in each window and includes representations of selection criteria for searching the database of the system. The selection criterion can be activated when the user touches the screen. The selection criterion consists of data ranges such as recent decades, music category, song index, etc.
Another object of the invention is to propose an audiovisual reproduction system that makes it possible to implement the process.
This object is achieved with an audiovisual reproduction system developed around a microprocessor device that is associated with a payment device. The system includes bulk storage for, among other things, storing visual and sound recordings in compressed digital form. The system interfaces with a digital display and digital sound reproduction structure, whereby a video monitor is connected to a touch screen which, in turn, is connected to an interface program to react to a user touching the touch screen. These contacts are translated for the operating system as mouse events which, via a library of integrated tools and services, initiates the modification of the running of one of the interface program modules. Each display zone of the video monitor, associated with the touch screen, is associated with a criterion for searching the database of the visual or audio representation data corresponding to the information displayed on the screen.
According to another feature, the search criterion is the selection of a number of albums corresponding to the number of windows that can be displayed on the screen and the associated graphical information. The search criterion may additionally or alternatively consist of music category, date range, etc.
According to another feature, scanning of the database is done in increments of the size of the number of windows that can be displayed on the selection screen.